Center for Victims

90.5 WESA's Kathleen Davis reports on a law named for Alina Sheykhet that passed unanimously in the state Senate.

Two months ago, the parents of University of Pittsburgh student Alina Sheykhet found her dead inside her Oakland apartment. The 20 year old had been raped and murdered, allegedly by her former boyfriend, against whom she'd filed a protection from abuse order weeks earlier.

Dr. Jackson Katz lectures throughout the country on how social views of masculinity contribute to gender violence. He’s in Pittsburgh as part of the Center for Victim’s new Men Ending Violence Challenge known as the MEN Challenge.

He describes portrayals of hyper masculinity in the media as "a prescription for dysfunctional behavior," and connects social perceptions of manhood with violence.

The last couple years have seen high profile mass shootings and terrorist attacks — Aurora, Newtown, Boston.

Here in Pittsburgh we’ve seen the same. Last year a gunman opened fire at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, killing one person and injuring seven. And in 2009, a man walked into an aerobics class at an L.A. Fitness and started shooting, killing three women and injuring nine.

There are also regular incidents of community and street violence. Last month a gunman injured two women and killed a 15-month-old in the East Hills.